Comedy Rambo:A gladiator of mockery, Stephen Colbert is dismantling American society from the inside

[Ian David]

By DAVID BIANCULLI
November 16, 2007 9:54:12 AM

Misunderestimate Stephen Colbert at your peril. Just because he is an unassuming, bespectacled physical specimen whose business cards may read “TV comedian” is no reason to dismiss him as a lightweight funnyman. Since the very night he launched his own series on Comedy Central in 2005, Colbert has thrown some vicious elbows, and demonstrated a bravura that dares his enemies to, in paraphrasing his ironic hero George W. Bush, bring it on.

As both a humorist and a political and media commentator, Colbert is a stealth bomber. A gladiator of mockery. A comedy Rambo. He’s the most dangerous satirist out there right now, and neither the writers’ strike nor his failure to get on the presidential-primary ballot in his native state of South Carolina will stall his advance for long.

In fact, Colbert has reached such revered status at this juncture that even in a period of relative inactivity — not doing a show, not running for president — people are talking about him, wondering about him, and waiting for his next move. He’s the Al Gore of Comedy Central: even if he can’t or won’t run for office, he is nevertheless building anticipation. (Can a Nobel Prize be far off?)

And, like Gore, he knows it. The question is, now that he knows he has the public’s attention and the media transfixed, where will he strike next? Or is not striking, and laying back, the smarter play? Colbert is nothing if not smart, and that’s why you have to watch him — even if, at least right now on TV, you can’t.




More:
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid51190.aspx

[blogslut]

1. I dig him

;)

[Toots]

2. I notice they show him with a ChiCom RPG instead of an American bazooka

Nothing subtle about that....

[liberal hypnotist]

3. Colbert is bad for this country.

This country needs people who think alike and make no waves. Stephen Colbert has gone too far outside of the box of passiveness. Back Colbert! Too many people think he is similar to Bill
O' Reilly.

Originality breeds dissent. and that's all we need now.:crazy: